


Looking Out for the Underclassmen

by foxmulder_whereartthou



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: Crying, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, during the dark hour, its that bit when akihiko finds junpei in the store !!, spat this out at 4am bc. vibe yknow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24974158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxmulder_whereartthou/pseuds/foxmulder_whereartthou
Summary: Junpei finds it in him to laugh about when Akihiko found him crying in a store during the Dark Hour, but at the time it had felt like the end of the world."No-one's going to fault you for being afraid."
Kudos: 27





	Looking Out for the Underclassmen

Junpei didn’t want to go home.

Home was where his dad was, and Junpei was going to see him as little as possible if he could help it. The 24 hour supermarket was a place of rest, where he could idly wander the fluorescently-lit aisles and not think about school or home or anything, really. 

When the moon turned green and the bodies of the people around him twisted and contorted into coffins, however, was a different story entirely.

The first thing he could recall was pressing his back against the metal railings of the stocked shelves, his eyes wide and shaking. Unsteady on his feet, he tried to run out into the street, to breathe some fresh air in and clear his head, but he took one look up into that cloudy emerald sky and froze, paralysed with fear, before ducking back into the shop.

It was pathetic - he couldn’t even collapse right, knocking into the side of an unmoving coffin and letting out a sudden scream before scrambling back and curling up. 

Hiding his face in his knees, Junpei didn’t hear when someone pried open the sliding doors, didn’t hear when someone wandered through the lanes as if checking for someone - or something. In fact, Junpei didn’t pay attention to anything at all until someone gently shook him. 

And once he looked up, a scream already on his lips, it was none other than Akihiko-senpai, the Captain of the Boxing Team. 

“Hey,” he said, in a soft tone of voice Junpei wouldn’t have expected out of someone like Sanada, and he didn’t even have time to be embarrassed about the sorry state he’d been found in, “Wanna come with me? I know someplace safer than this.”

However, when Akihiko offered out a hand to help him up, instinct took over, and Junpei grabbed it only to pull him down and sob into the shoulder of his red vest. It was awkward and vaguely humiliating, but he was so scared and shaken that he welcomed it fully when Sanada stiffly slung his arms around him. Hot tears rolling down his cheeks, now crying for more reasons than simply being disoriented and frightened, Junpei fully welcomed however much of a hug it could be perceived to be. 

Comforting him with a short pat on the back, Akihiko pulled away from where Junpei had been crying into his front and wrenched them both up. 

“Sorry,” he sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

“‘S okay,” Akihiko murmured, peering out into the street beyond, scanning for moving figures, “No-one’s going to fault you for being afraid.”

**Author's Note:**

> spat this out at 4AM to satiate,,,, something.   
> as usual, i hope you enjoyed!! 
> 
> kudos and comments always appreciated <333 ily all


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